How The Best Businesses Keep Growing

You have a vision for your business and what it can become and how it will serve your community. At some point during your businesses lifetime, it will stop growing and your progress towards that long-term vision will grind to a halt. Everyone experiences this at some level but some businesses are able to break through and some aren't. The ones that break through are the businesses that we admire and that we think of as the best. So how do the best keep growing their business?

Having your business plateau is frustrating. The answer to why is rarely complex but, as a business owner, you are so close to the problem that you can't see it. I run into this scenario a lot with the clients that I work with. After having this conversation again recently, I wanted to give you two simple areas that you can look at to assess where you are at with regards to your own business growth.

#1: Fundamentals– I am going to write a more in-depth post on business fundamentals next week. In the meantime, ask yourself this question: Are there things that you know you should do but just aren't doing it? Chances are the answer is “yes” and I am going to let you in on a little secret about business. When it comes to running a business, there aren't any secrets or formulas for success. Everything you need to know already exists. The question is, are you applying what you already know works?

#2: Your business is not structured for growth– This is the biggest hang up to long-term growth of a business. It's very possible that there is no way that your business, in its current format, could ever possibly grow any bigger. Here are some of the main reasons:

Limiting Processes and Systems: Don't build your business for now. Build it for the future. When you build for the present, you risk not having the ability to change what you have already created when your business needs to change to the grow. This could be due to time, resources, etc. Within reason, build your business with the long-term plan in mind at each step of the way.

You don't have time: Once you get busy, there goes time. Have you ever tried to create and build when you are busy? It's hard and then you don't take time to create and build. At some point, the things you don't have time for could save you time but you don't have time. You can run on that treadmill for years.

Take a look at what your long-term vision is for your business. What could stand in the way of you getting there? Answer that question and you now have the information you need to build a growing business.